Combined banknote infeed and outfeed arrangements (e.g. so-called autobanks) are previously known, for example, from U.K. Patent Specification No. 2 094 531.
In this known arrangement, banknotes deposited or inserted thereinto are transported, one after the other, past a detecting means and thence to temporary storage locations intended for banknotes of differing denominations. Subsequent to the customer acknowledging satisfaction with the depositing or infeed procedure, the documents are conveyed further to respective banknote-collecting boxes. These banknotes can then be dispensed to other customers, therewith minimizing the number of banknotes with which the apparatus need be filled, by the bank, for example, in order to meet a plurality of transactions.
A similar arrangement is illustrated and described in European Patent Application No. 024 704, in which a bundle of banknotes deposited by a customer in the arrangement are fed, in a similar manner, to temporary collecting locations for differing banknote denominations, or to a separate or general collecting chamber for banknotes of all denominations. Subsequent to the customer accepting the transaction, the banknotes are transferred from the temporary storage locations to secure banknote locations for banknotes or differing denominations. The banknotes can be sorted from this general collecting chamber into the aforesaid banknote collecting locations.
An arrangement of somewhat different construction is described and illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,016. This arrangement is also a combined banknote, or document, infeed and outfeed arrangement, although in this case the various banknotes contained in a bundle of banknotes deposited in the machine are transported to one single magazine or, if the customer has a change of mind, to the withdrawal openings of the arrangement, via transport means provided in both the infeed and the outfeed mechanism of the arrangement.
The aforementioned arrangements, and similar arrangements are often complicated and bulky, and are not sufficiently flexible for use under differing conditions. However, a major drawback with the aforesaid known arrangements is that they are too slow in operation to meet the requirements placed on such apparatus under present day circumstances and conditions.